Capacity of adaptation and incapacity of decision. The Portuguese State and the political articulation of social interests since 1974

Abstract

The permanence of some structural features regarding the «foundation» period of the new political regime, the sedimentation of some politico-administrative practices tending to avoid and postpone every «serious» decision, the ambiguities and the indefinition factors in the system of government, the generalized incapacity of the administrative system and its «disarticulation» before the political system - here are some aspects that, among others, explain the problems the State has met with in its relationship with society. In this work the author concentrates on those factors (mainly on the side of the State and especially since the 25^th April 1974 and on account of the processus open at that moment) having contributed to what the author considers to be the decision and execution incapacity shown by the political system as to the articulation of social interests. They are factors connected not only to the State indeed; they must also be searched in many aspects of the social organization before and after 1974. The elements here presented seem to explain, at least in some extent, the reasons why one keeps a system of political decisions almost exclusively dictated by a permanent «state of necessity» imposed by the flnantial difficulties and the accomodating and «reactive» political arrangements justified by the well-known excuse of the «inexistence of alternatives».